Toddler Tales Week 62: The Unofficial End of Summer

This week started off with some fun times with friends.  On Sunday, we went to church and then joined our friends the Laillets and the Peterson's for lunch at Qdoba.  After some good fellowship and yummy Mexican, we headed back home for nap time.  When everyone was rested up, we headed back out to meet the Laillets again at the city pool for the afternoon.  From everything that we could find, the pool was supposed to be open until September (today was August 31), but when we got there it was closed.  Instead, we continued East to the lake for some fun on the beach.  The water was too cold for anyone to enjoy, but the boys had a great time playing in the sand while the girls looked on from nearby cozy towels.  It must have been the right place to be, because shortly after we got there, our friends the Schmitts showed up as well and everyone had a great time enjoying the end of summer together.

Fab., Theo, Asher & Eric playing in their mud hole.

Trying out the fridged waters

While the boys had their fun, and Britni got some pictures of her own, Liluo and I had our own fun with the cameras.

Lilou with her mommy

Fab, Asher, Eric & the Schmitt kids.

Video: Kids (& Eric) at the Beach

On Monday, it was Labor Day...not my labor day (thankfully & unfortunately), but the Labor Day.  It was a rainy morning, but got nice in time for a party.  A few days prior, Eric and I decided to hold an Ice Cream Social at our home for a bunch of the young couples at our church (& the young at heart-Pastor Dave & Judy).  Although we don't have the opportunity often to socialize with all of these great families, we do like to do so when we can make it happen and since we were actually home for a holiday weekend (unlike usual where we typically go to Michigan) we decided to see if others were interested.  We supplied the bowls, spoons and ice cream and simply asked that everyone else bring a topping to share.  Ice cream must have sounded like a great way to top off the summer to everyone else as well, because we had a great turn out!  I don't know if I've ever seen so many people in our house at one time before!  If I counted correctly, we had 13 families, including 25 adults and 19 kids (of which 16 were age 3 or younger and 6 of those were born since June)!  It was a crazy time, but lots of fun!  ...and I although it wasn't brownies and ice cream (it was a cookie & ice cream), I think I can cross this off my parenting bucket list: letting my kids have brownies and ice cream for dinner once in a while.  It wasn't my plan, but by the time everyone left it was Asher's bedtime and he really wasn't hungry yet for anything else so he had a piece of cheese and some milk and then went to bed.

Asher rocking in the garage, just after the rain stopped while Eric cut the lawn.

Britni, Mike, Judy, Lilou, Allison, Morgan & Kaylee

Theo, Jonah, Calvin, Jill, Elias, Allison, Etta, Alex, Heidi & Violet

Nicky, Will, Zack, Addison, Theo, Jonah, Calvin  & Jill

Britni enjoying her ice cream with all the kiddos (Theo, Asher, Rachel, Kaden, Allison, Katelyne, Elias & Jonathan.

Asher, Rachel, Allison, Elias, Katelyn & Jonathan

Pastor Dave & Lilou

Lilou

Asher, Jonathan & Rachel

Stephen, Fab & Andy

Richenda, Judy, Catie, Morgan, Kaylee & Jen

The only bummer about the party was that our friends Jen & Stephen announced what I knew would be coming any day: they are moving.  Both Southerns and far from their families, I knew they wouldn't make it here long, but at that same time hoped that maybe I'd be wrong.  Thus, the party sort of went from a ice cream social to a goodbye to Jen & Stephen...they will be missed!

Judy, Jen & Catie (photo courtesy of Jen)

Me, Jen & Catie (photo courtesy of Jen)

Britni, Lilou, Richenda, Kaden, Jen, Catie, Me and 'M' (photo courtesy of Jen)

After the party, it was time to focus on work for the rest of the week...my last week of work in the office before 'M's arrival to be exact!  It is hard to believe that the time was here already, but Eric and I both spent the week working as hard as possible to get things in order at our jobs before the baby comes and I go on maternity leave.  After this week, I'll work at home until the baby comes, but that could be any day, so I wanted to have as much in order as possible before leaving.  Unfortunately, the week of work didn't start off well.  After a great party and fun day with friends, I slept TERRIBLE that evening.  All night long I tossed and turned, trying to get to sleep and trying to make use of every trick I've learned to help over the past few months, but nothing worked.  I did not fall asleep until almost 5am the next morning!!  Thus, I asked Eric to call my boss and tell him I'd try to be in later that afternoon.  I was able to sleep (on and off) until 11, and then forced my exhausted body out of bed to get ready and go to work.  I made it through the day...completely exhausted and a bit on edge...but I made it.  That night though I had no patience for Asher and ended up letting daddy put him to sleep on his own while I put myself to bed.  I was hoping to get to sleep right away (it was only 7:30), but didn't fall asleep until after 9.  I did sleep until 5am the next morning though, which means I got almost 8 hours...a small miracle for me these days.

The rest of the week was busy, but went fine.  Since I was off on Monday, I didn't get my day home alone with Asher like usual, but before I knew it the week was done and it was Saturday again...

When I went in to get Asher on Saturday morning, I found this:

I never would have imagined, that he would simply stay in his bed until we come to get him in the mornings, but that is exactly what he does.  He takes books with him to bed every night and simply sits and reads or plays with his buddies until we arrive...amazing!

Since the work week was done and according to the doctor (after our appointment earlier that week) things were coming along and the baby could come at any moment, Eric and I kicked it into high gear to prepare.  Among other things, I finally got around to washing all of our baby stuff that has been stored away for two years while Eric worked on fixing the window in the nursery which was in terrible shape, helping us both to feel a bit more prepare for the Fall changes in our family soon to come!

Organizing baby clothes Newborn-24 Months and figuring out what we need to get out now...as you can see it was a pretty big project.